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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Qtip Watercolor Painting

We found another crafty activity to add to our repertoire! Watercolor painting using qtips as a paint brush. Alexa is super into anything crafty. So far, we have painted with watercolors twice and she enjoyed it both times. She likes being able to dip the qtip into the water and then pick her color. It is hard work trying to mix the water into the color, but she did a really great job the second time we did this activity.

All you need is some qtips, water color paints, an old yogurt container, water, some paper towels and a lot of patience. This is a great activity for developing and fine tuning those fine motor skills and it also makes a very pretty piece of art when finished.

For this activity, I have been setting up the art station on the living room coffee table. I use clear tape to tape down two sides of a piece of white paper. Then I use an old yogurt cup as a water cup and place that on a paper towel to absorb any spills. I grab 3-4 qtips and the watercolor paints. Alexa fits perfectly on the couch with the table pulled all the way up to her. I hold the water cup so she can dunk the qtip in. She practices dunking the qtip in the water and then has to concentrate to get paint onto the qtip.

She's getting very good at holding the qtip between her thumb and pointer finger like you would hold a pencil. Her control is also getting better. Her favorite part is mixing the water with the paint. After she stirs it for quite a while, I try and convince her to actually paint on the paper!